At their first direct talks Thursday, Israeli and Palestinian leaders have agreed to meet every two weeks during the coming year to work out parameters for a peace agreement, Middle East peace envoy George Mitchell told journalists Thursday.

“The parties themselves have suggested and agreed that the logical way to proceed is to try to reach a framework agreement first,” Mitchell told journalists at the State Department Thursday, defining it as “not an interim agreement and more detailed than a declaration of principles but less than a full-fledged treaty.”

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VIDEO: Clinton negotiates

POLITICO 44

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Mitchell will attend the next set of talks in the region on Sept. 14-15, Mitchell said. In the future, the U.S. will attend some of the talks, if not all of them, he added.

Mitchell said that first the full American, Israeli and Palestinian negotiating teams met this morning, followed by a meeting including only Clinton, Mitchell, Abbas and Netanyahu. Later, Abbas and Netanyahu held a one-on-one session, while their advisers met simultaneously.

Mitchell would give few details on the substance of what was discussed, including on whether the subject of Israeli settlements came up. He also said the talks this morning focused more on process than substance.

“In terms of the process going forward, that will be resolved by the parties,” Mitchell said. “You cannot separate process from substance. We have had extensive discussions with them on that and those will continue. Our goal is to resolve all of the core issues within one year.”

It was the latest development in a day that began with Clinton delivering a Foggy Bottom pep talk but warning that the U.S. won't "impose a solution" on parties deeply divided over the issues of Israeli settlements on Palestinian land and Hamas attacks on the Jewish state.

Clinton didn’t soft-pedal the troubles that lie immediately ahead — especially the opening dispute over the lapsing Israeli moratorium on settlers building new homes in the West Bank — but suggested the willingness of Israelis and Palestinians to risk talks amid widespread pessimism was in itself a reason for guarded optimism.

“To those who criticize this process, who stand on the sidelines and say ‘no,’ I ask you to join us in this effort,” said Clinton, speaking at the kickoff of talks in the State Department's Benjamin Franklin Room, flanked by Netanyahu and Abbas.

Here we go again. Hillary Clinton is going to have a whack at it. Yet another (American) Sec. of State sanguine enough to think she can have an "impact" on the enmity that exists between Israel (the Jews ) and the Arabs....which has been prevalent for tens of thousands of years. It's like Charlie Brown, Lucy and the football.....only on a much deadlier course.

Obama is playing with fire. There are reports that Iran and Syria are planning to have Hezbollah attack Israel from Lebanon on as early as Wednesday or Thursday of this coming week, on Rosh Hashanah. Hamas has made two attacks on Israeli civilians in the last 2 days in the West Bank. Abbas has no control over any group on the West Bank or Gaza. Anything he signs in the name of the Palestinian People is Worthless. Who will enforce it, Obama?

Prime Minister Netanyahu made it clear he wants a permanent and lasting peace which includes secure and recognized b orders for the State of Israel. His position is simple; he wants the Palestinians and the Muslim world to recognize Israel as the Jewish State and the homeland of the Jewish People and all claims against the Jewish People and the State of Israel to be resolved. Abbas and the Muslim World refuse to recognize Israel as the Jewish State and the Homeland of the Jewish People and they will never sign any document resolving all claims the Palestinian people have against the State of Israel and the Jewish People. So, where is the basis for any peace imitative?

The only thing Obama is doing is raising the hopes that he will force Israel into committing suicide, which will never happen. Obama believes that once he solves the Arab Israeli dispute he will be able to put together a coalition of Muslim states to stand up to Iran. He is living in never never land. If Israel didn’t exist the Muslim World would still hate us; we are decadent, immoral, and most important we are not Muslim. They hate our culture and our free society. They are stilling in the 12th century fighting the Crusades and we are their oppressors who are occupying Muslim Lands and exploiting Muslim natural resources for our immoral purposes. That is the reason they hate us. Just ask Imam Aruf who wants to build his Muslim Victory shrine on top of one of the 9/11 sites attacked by the same Muslim Extremists he so vehemently refuse to reject.

So, tell me how anyone can expect to create the atmosphere needed for true on honest peace negotiations under these conditions. Obama tried is sucking up to the terrorists and the enablers and financiers and states who export Islamic Terrorism. We have seen how far he has gotten with that approach; The Fort Hood Terrorist attack, the underwear bomber, Time Square Terrorist Bomber, Terrorism in the streets of Iraq again, Iran obtaining the capacity to produce Nuclear Weapons, Hezbollah rearming in direct violation of the UN agreements, The stupidity of telling the Taliban they just have to wait us out and once we are gone they can produce another pro Iranian state bent on our destruction and now Hamas terrorists attacking Israeli civilians on a civilian road at night. Obama has written a prescription not just for failure but a cataclysmic event which could endanger the whole world. Just think of Iran with Nuclear Warheads aimed not just at Israel but at United States allies and interest in Europe?

the enmity that exists between Israel (the Jews ) and the Arabs....which has been prevalent for tens of thousands of years.

That's an incorrect statement.

Where do you get your history, from Glen Beck?

How well were Jews treated by Rome, the Persians, the Greeks, Babylonians, or Egyptians (the latter two not being strictly speaking Arab)? How is it that there is only an enmity with Arabs going back 10's of thousands of years?

The enmity between Jews and the Romans and Greeks was bridged. Why can't an enmity with Arabs be bridged?

Jews and Arab speaking Muslims got along very well in Spain before the Christian conquests began there - specifically, in the Caliphate of Cordoba, which was closely connected to Arabs in Bagdad.

Famous Jewish sage, Moses Maimonides, after early successes in Muslim Spain, chose to spend the rest of his career in Morroco and Egypt, rather than any Christian country. Egypt is now generally considered an Arab country. For sure, Egypt was ruled by Arabs during the time Moses Maimonides chose to live there, which was during the Fatimid Caliphate.

Check your facts before making rash statements.

Differences between Jews and Arabs is not a deep enmity. It is a matter of politics and economics, like all other ethnic divisions.

Hillary Clinton is an opportunistic, blindly ambitious, nitwit! Besides serving tea to Irish women while Bill was negotiating an end to the violence in Northern Ireland, Hillary makes sure she gets her fat face in every photo op she is near. Her real accomlishments can be engraved on the head of a stright pin and have space left to add the handbook for radicals.

To add to Hillary's bumbling, yesterday, she referred the Arizona immigration law to the human rights panel of the UN! The woman is a complete moron and a fitting addition to the Obama team of incompetents.

If these peace negotiations are successful, you can bet Hillary will trumpet her (nonexistent) involvement as the reason. Of course, if they fail, she will claim she wasn’t, even, present except for the photo ops.

I defer to you ManOverBoard. I know you to be a scholar of the Bible and ancient history.

Perhaps I should just say.......the Jews have never been crazy abou the Arabs. IMO...the Jews and the Arabs will be in dreadful strife and conflict well into forever.......it appears to all boil down to who occupied Jerusalum "first" (The enmity, hostility and hatred between Jacob and Esau.) No amiable agreement seems to satisfy either side.

Have you ever watched two strangers go at it over a parking space? (Who saw it first.) Sometimes....it comes to blows. And our National Leaders think they can cause peace to erupt in the Middle East when we so-called "civilized" people can't even get along in a parking lot.

we so-called "civilized" people can't even get along in a parking lot.

But parking lot competition is related to economics (convenience), not to deep enmity.

A struggle over allocation of resources does not reflect deep enmity.

I agree that such competition can be deadly. People have been known to kill each other over a card game.

But, such violence is not only severely punished, it is also relatively rare considering the infinite number of opportunities that exist for conflict in the course of a lifetime.

You might say that Jews and Arabs are struggling to live in the same space; and there is not room in that space for two rivals.

. . . unless they agree to share the space . . .

. . . or, unless they agree to become fellow citizens of a single state.

Jews survived and prospered after Rome twice totally destroyed Jerusalem. There is nothing anyone can do to prevent Jews from being a unique and vital culture. Their long term survival does not depend on a battle to the death with any other group. Jews are really above that kind of thing. Masada proved that.

Rome destroyed both Carthage and Jerusalem twice. Which culture still exists today?